Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered the country’s military to prepare to attack Iran’s nuclear program two years ago, and were opposed by the country’s top security officials, according to an Israeli news channel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered the country’s military to prepare to attack Iran’s nuclear program two years ago, and were opposed by the country’s top security officials, according to an Israeli news channel.
The report alleges that during a 2010 meeting with senior ministers, Netanyahu told Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazai, then head of the Israeli Defence Forces, to “set the systems for P-plus,” meaning that an attack could soon commence.
According to Channel 2’s Uvda (Fact) television program, Ashkenazai warned that Israel’s enemies would notice such a move and might respond in a way that would lead to war. Meir Dagan, then chief of the Mossad spy agency, told the channel Netanyahu and Barak were trying to “steal” a decision to go to war without the formal approval of the full Cabinet.
Ehud Barak told the channel such orders are reversible and that “at the moment of truth the answer was given that, in fact, the ability did not exist.”